Psalms

[0:00] as the lord may help me i will direct your attention to psalm 48 verse 14 the 48th psalm verse 14 for this god is our god forever and ever he will be our guide even unto death for this god god is our god forever and ever he will be our guide even unto death some of you that were here present on thursday evening last will remember that we began to make a few observations from this part of the word of god and briefly those observations were taken from the three psalms the 46 47 and 48 psalms that were read on that occasion the five particular points mentioned were in reference to god being our refuge god being our strength god being a very present help in trouble god being the lord of hosts that is with us and finally god being a god of power this word is so extensive and if we have the ability so full of matter that we scarcely know how to continue what aspect to take up of this great and glorious god which is spoken of in these words in the words of our text and not only so but as we noticed that god is a god that is known he is not a god merely of theoretical knowledge but he is a god that is known and again on thursday we noticed a word in this psalm earlier up where it says god is known in her palaces for a refuge in the psalms that we read together this morning we had further evidence of the blessedness and the happiness of those people that were favored to enjoy this knowledge of god in other words those those that were blessed with eternal life for this is life eternal that they might know thee the only true god and jesus christ whom thou hast sent none can rightly enter into and enjoy the glories of the words before us except those who are born again of the spirit those who are blessed with eternal life those who live daily upon the sacrifice of the lord jesus christ depend upon him continually for their help and their guidance and their strength and come clearly to be followers with paul of the lord jesus christ when he said to the galatians i am crucified with christ nevertheless i live yet not i but christ liveth in me and the life which i now live in the flesh i live by the faith of the son of god who loved me and gave himself for me here therefore we have yet another aspect of this word for this god is our god and what a personal aspect of this god and what a personal aspect it is who loved me and gave himself for me we have not ventured upon up to the moment uh the greatness and glory of god as displayed in god the father god the son and god the holy ghost by three persons proceeding from one essence the everlasting and only true god and only true god about as we mentioned on third thing our desire was since the subject was so large to be led to those particular aspects of it that the holy ghost would seek us to set before you on these occasions and so depending upon god to that end we would now attempt to bring before you that which has just come upon our spirit who loved me and gave himself for me for this god is our god forever and ever how different will god become to you uh when you get the first intimation that he loves you though many have a god who very similar to themselves uh is even so uh is even so a god that has neither power of speech or power of hearing or ability to do about to come to the ever-living god to have the ever-living god to consider in answer to that question where is thy god who is thy god in answer to this point here as an enlargement of it for this god is our god forever and ever uh then to answer it is god that loved me oh unspeakable uh is that mercy of god uh that is conveyed to the soul when we have this knowledge that god has loved us and in the words of the apostle who loved me and gave himself for me now this sets our attention essentially just at the moment to the glorious and grand person what we term the second person in the trinity jesus christ the son of god as you are aware the lord jesus took upon him human flesh and in the time appointed he came upon this earth could all those people that spoke to him could all those people that uh observed him i say could they all say as they viewed him as they prostrated themselves before him if they had such a desire nor didn't who loved me and gave himself for me but there were some that did and uh is there a lot not is not there a lot of blessed ones uh if we can humbly look at the lord jesus christ who went about doing good and follow him through the travails of life through the tribulations of time and then trace his pathway up through the garden of gethsemane through the judgment hall up to the cross and all the time observed that in these glorious actions of the lord jesus christ are inscribed yea super inscribed these words he loved me and gave himself for me this god for this god is our god well now love is a word with various shades of meaning people may sometimes profess to love another person and yet that love is only secondary to a love to themselves we may see this at times in the case of husband and wife and wife and husband they're not willing to put themselves um second as they may put their wife first or if the uh opposite obtain that they are willing to put themselves second that they may put their husband first and so there is a restriction to the extent of their love how many uh would have to fall uh under such uh a solemn stroke and come in guilty and uh remind themselves the many times which perhaps when they should have put themselves second they have in the first of all considered their own comfort before going out of the way even to help even to succor one so near to them as wife or husband but we may see many cases uh which um where marriages have a very sad end uh where it is so sadly yet clearly demonstrated uh that there is only one love that is manifested and that is love to self but the gospel is and the fulfillment of the law is contained in this there shall love the lord thy god with all thy heart and with all thy mind and with all thy soul and with all thy strength and the second commandment is likened to it thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself i verily believe that where the grace of god is in the heart of a person we shall fervently desire to walk along those lines though we may have many occasions to so sadly mourn because of our failures and because we come so far behind yet nonetheless that is the touchstone that is the place that is the object that our desire is drawn towards and thus as we may read the full interpretation of loving thy neighbor as thyself as described to us in the parable of the

[11:46] Samaritan oh then have you ever been drawn towards that blessed American who came where he was you may have been in the place of the poor man because of that you have rejoiced that the Lord Jesus came where you are have you seen others in the same place in a distressed condition you know friends if there aren't very many people if I may be so bold as to say it that have come into the depths of of a lost condition that that poor man fell among thieves had we have a great deal of religion in the present day which alas sad it is to say but nonetheless it is there is too much evidence to reveal it that it is superficial and if there should be a person suddenly plunged into the depths of well nigh despair if there should be some that are pushed to the brink of hell by the temptations of

[12:54] Satan then how few can have anything to do with them how few can understand the reason and the workings of God in this but there are a few and those few few indeed they are are such that have been well nigh in the same place and to whom under the same conditions the precious Lord Jesus Christ has come perhaps with a simple word but nonetheless he has come and there has been a demonstration of what the apostle describes as a blessed experience who loved me and gave himself for me now may I say this friends because none of us know to what extremity we may be pushed at one side at a time or another that Satan will do his utmost to destroy your soul and it is not an unknown experience though perhaps not a very frequent experience for even the

[14:04] Lord's people to be pushed right to the edge of the pit it looks as though they are going to fall into hell it looks as though and it appears to them by the very feelings of their heart as if they dropped into hell they could not be worse than the feelings of their soul as it is at the moment they are in hell in their soul's feelings at the moment and the devil says well what's the use why are you stopping you can't be worse off if you plunge yourselves into never ending flames because then you will have your justice then you will be where you know you deserve to be and then you will be able to harden yourself in sorrow and thus there would be a settlement of the matter about satan though he may drive you to the edge of the pit will never be able to push you in and this is because the Lord Jesus Christ the God of whom we speak to you this morning loved you and gave himself for you if we look at the temptations of Jesus

[15:14] Christ oh they were very vivid weren't they they were very extreme just to imagine it being taken to the pinnacle of the temple being tempted to cast himself down from the temple and satan in his audacity and brazenness bringing in some scripture though not the whole of it in order to add to the success of his temptation I have often felt glad friends for the words that are sometimes sung our captain stood the fiery death and we shall stand through him because this God is our God forever and ever that is this God who loved me and gave himself for me now let us look just for a moment at the fullness of that word gave himself you see there was no reservation there was no restriction why did he give himself because nothing less would do nothing less would do than the giving of himself he was the truth sometimes in the law courts the various witnesses are sworn in to tell forth the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth may we apply it to him who is the truth and that we may say that he gave himself the truth the whole truth he gave himself holy and fully and that he was nothing but the truth and because he was the truth

[17:19] Jesus Christ who gave himself for me was such that he knew the truth about you he knew the truth about the depth and depravity of your sin he knew the truth about the depth and depravity not only of your sin but of your nature of your weakness and your propensity to evil we have only come to know this a little by little over the years is it not true will you not some of you bear witness to it that though in those early days if you we are looking at some now perhaps looking back 10 20 30 40 or even 50 years of a gracious confession now if you can look back to those days when you first bore the name of Jesus in a gracious profession and followed him in the ordinances of his house then you felt you were a sinner oh yes and you would have been most offended if people had said to you

[18:28] I don't think you know much about sin really see see what a small sinner I was but this is the teaching of the spirit of God and so as we go on from year to year we discover more deeply our colour and make and find we're all over as anything black now God is quite sovereign in the way that he works these things out perhaps some of you may already be saying in your heart oh

[19:34] I don't know much about that I don't know much about myself as a sinner at all I visited one of our dear friends at home whom I recently baptised in hospital or somewhere about a year ago and she was telling me one or two things and she said you know Mr.

[19:54] Hyde what I'm afraid of I don't feel myself to be a sinner like other people do I was bound to tell her that I would come when she would and in the course of her testimony before the church of God at Shaw's Corner she said oh yes she had known something about sin in the last few months God had brought it into her heart the burden of sin had been upon her spirit what was it how was it brought about what kind of conviction did she have oh was it some conviction that she felt that she had been lingering in something of a very wicked character that she had been going on in a course of pleasure seeking or double dealing or this kind of thing no it was something very different it was something which was within

[20:59] I will not go into the details but except to say this the conviction laid in the very matter of her spirit her spirit and her spirit on one occasion was such that she felt she was wrong and she felt she had to go to another person and confessed that she was wrong in her spirit conviction a deepening of the knowledge of sin within you see conviction of sin is pretty shallow if all it does is to bring us out from the world that is if we have been accustomed to going to the cinema or to the football match and so on if our conviction of sin only stops us there well

[22:04] I'm going to say this friends it's pretty shallow because the God's conviction of sin will be in the same place that David found it when he said thou desirest truth in the inward parts or then again he says wash me throughly from mine iniquity and cleanse me from my sin if we turn to the third chapter of Matthew we find there John the Baptist speaking of the Lord Jesus Christ and saying this he will throughly purge his floor now we think I feel that to speak of thoroughly well that's really turning things inside out but here is a man David that speaks of throughly throughly which to my mind has a deeper meaning than thoroughly and then we turn to

[23:10] John the Baptist he speaks of the Lord Jesus Christ and he says when he comes he shall thoroughly purge his floor thoroughly and so David says wash me thoroughly from mine iniquity and cleanse me from my sin for I acknowledge my transgressions and my sin is ever before me against thee the only have I sinned and done this evil in thy sight that thou mightest be justified when thou speakest and be clear when thou judgest but what are we going to do when God has convicted us of our sin this God is our God forever and ever in other words he does not change he will always be the same in all generations but what are we going to do when God has convicted us of our sin unless we are able in humility of faith to be able to speak of this

[24:20] God being our God who loved me and gave himself for me well now love is wonderful isn't it that when you come to look at it in regard to you and your relationship to the Lord Jesus Christ well wonderful takes on a new meaning doesn't it astonishing favour so divine the Lord could love me not only love me but give his life for me does that impress you this morning and who is this that loves me and gives his life for me greater love hath no man than this and a man lay down his life for his friends but this is the eternal God the Lord Jesus Christ abiding in the bosom of his father from all eternity but who said by gracious prophecy in the eighth of proverbs his delight were with the children of men the children of men was the habitable part of his earth where he set up his dwelling place with

[25:46] I dwell in the high and holy place but also with him that is of a broken spirit who loved me well it would be wonderful would it not if you could find a man if you could find your husband if you could find your wife who would give your life give her his life or her life for your sin men would raise their heads in admiration clap their hands in acclamation that such an evident spirit of devotion and love should have been brought forth in such a real and practical way wonderful but this is the son of

[26:46] God this is the Lord Jesus Christ this is that of whom it is written who was holy harmless separate from sinners this was Jesus Christ who when he became when he came to the earth came to an earth that would reject him by and large but to as many as received him to them gave he power to become the sons of God for this God is our God now you know friends when Jesus Christ is your God you've got a God to speak about for this God this Lord Jesus Christ oh Peter speaks of him so powerfully see him in that situation where there were many that when went away and walked no more with him it would put us to the test wouldn't it if many walked and went away and walked no more with him it always seems to me that there was a weighing up of the pros and cons in Peter's heart and in the disciples hearts otherwise surely the

[28:22] Lord would not have said will he also go away if they had been holding firm if they had been evincing a loyal spirit to the Lord Jesus Christ on that occasion surely it would not have been necessary for him to warn them along these lines and say will he also go away but perhaps you've been in that place sometimes you've been as it were questioning the point as to whether this is really the son of God and then we see the power of this God which is our God who poured upon Peter that spirit of faith and not only the spirit of faith but the spirit of power that he might be able to confess the son of God and he says to the Lord Jesus yea and to us each thou to whom else can we go thou hast the words of eternal life this God is our

[29:33] God thou art the Christ the son of the living God so the revelation to Peter was such that revealed to him that he was the living God as well as being the Christ and this had been revealed when the powers of darkness were as it were attempting to shape the foundations we do sometimes even in the present day come into some circumstances that seem to cause our faith to rock and Peter's faith was caused to rock on this occasion he hasn't said a word mind you perhaps you haven't said a word either but has your faith been as it were shaky have you been weighing up the matter to whether after all the God that is professed amongst us is the real God the true

[30:45] God now God feeds into your heart he knows the secret of your soul you see there are many things which go on within our hearts which no other person knows anything about but God does and sometimes God comes down and through his word he says now you've been thinking so and so thou thoughtest mark it thou thoughtest that I was such a one of thee no opening of the mouth but thou thoughtest and as Peter pondered it over in his mind is this what he was thinking that's what the other people evidently thought because they walked away I didn't want to know anything more about Jesus Christ and his teaching but there were some that did and those some were blessed with that blessing who loved me and gave himself for me now in giving himself what may we consider he gave his life and he died the death we sometimes

[32:11] I fear lose sight of the blessedness and glory of this great truth that the Lord Jesus lived a life for us as well as dying a death for us but notice says why did the Lord live a life because our life is not worth anything it isn't worth a song our life and sometimes God makes you feel it to be so perhaps some have arisen to positions shall we say in business circles in professional circles some have been appointed to positions in the church of God or we may even go farther and say in denominational circles they're well known but what is your life

[33:18] James makes it very clear do you ever believe it it is but a vapour it is but a vapour it isn't worth anything it just pays away have you been looking at your life lately have you been proud of your achievements lately remember friend your life is but a vapour I know in the eyes of men of course it may mean much perhaps in your eyes it means much but what we've got to consider and the eyes that have got to study the matter are the eyes of God now when I say these things friends I'm not meaning that you should immediately abstain from continuing in a right ambition and to serve your fellow man in that capacity to which God has called you and qualified you to do that would be quite wrong but to the point

[34:20] I am endeavouring to set before you this morning is as it appears in God's sight you see because there are very many people that are going to come to their death bed and they're going to say well I've lived a good life I've done what I could for my fellow men in fact I've gone out of my way sometimes to help them and I've used all my mental ability and my physical ability it's all been thrown in and as I look at it it's more or less been done for my fellow men well we're bound to tell you friends that in the sight of God that's all the worthless life as it relates to your attaining heaven by it mark that as it relates to your attaining heaven by it so what are you going to do here you are in this happy position of having lived a good life you will understand the meaning of these words in the context having lived a good life having been helpful as often as you could now you come to your dying bed now you're going to say this

[35:53] God is our God now what God well the God you're thinking of now is yourself the God you're relying on now is yourself but that God isn't forever and ever that God is going to die now that God has no power against death we have seen some of the most outstanding men in the world's history they've all come to the same spot with all their powers with all their mental achievements with all their prowess attained in the world they've come down to die nobody they couldn't even stop it themselves yet as they lived so they were gods gods in the eyes of the people perhaps gods in their own eyes but you in a lesser sphere might have been a god in your own eyes for this god is our god forever and ever so when god shakes us up as it were as he does if we're his children shows us that god won't do that god won't save us when we need him then what god will the lord jesus christ who loved me and gave himself for me so he lived a life oh do you see now the necessity of his living a life what kind of life a life of righteousness a life of holiness a life of seeking the lord continually a life of praying without ceasing a life of loving the lord his god with all his heart and with all his soul and with all his mind and with all his strength a life of loving his neighbour as himself a life that was the life that god required who gave his life for me he was already holy he was already god but he came and in the most trying circumstance he lived the life that god required and what is it that god requires michael tells us it is to do justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with thy god though we may seek to do these things when god riddles us through we find we're ever so far short and now you're going to rejoice in god say in the psalm that we read i will extol thee the lord jesus christ as you see him living this life this life of holiness and righteousness and prayer and so on but he's living it for me why is he living it for me because that's the kind of life i must live if i'm to get to heaven and so we find a precious word in the ephesians accepted in the beloved his life accepted for you and as it is given to you i give you my life in place of your wretched life my perfect life my glorious life my god glorifying life i give it to you i have walked it out to be you my life but then we read he laid down his life for his sheep so there was a laying down of the life why was that well your life had to be dealt with your wicked life your unholy life your lustful life your envious life your covetous life your dishonouring of god's life all had to be dealt with how was it to be dealt with only one way that was acceptable to god and that was by the blood of jesus christ and if we look back in the book of leviticus we find this and the blood is the life thereof the blood for this god is our god who loved me and gave himself for me gave his life gave his blood to purge out our sins so as it might be said

[41:27] I have blotted out as a cloud thine iniquity and as a thick cloud thine sins and will remember them no more forever as you may bring forth your confession this morning as it reflects itself in these words for this god is our god forever and ever is this the god you will confess confess before men is this the god that you will honor and desire to extol and to glorify him in the heavens will it be your desire to see yourself as nothing and god himself as the god that deserves all the honor and all the glory and all the praise that is due unto his great and holy name let us look at a wonderful exhortation a wonderful confession of faith if we can lay our hands upon it in respect to

[43:03] Nebuchadnezzar the same hour I'll just read these verses to you the same hour was the king the thing fulfilled upon Nebuchadnezzar he was driven from men and did eat grass as oxen and his body was wet with the dew of heaven till his hairs were grown like eagle's feathers and his nails like bird's claws and at the end of the days I Nebuchadnezzar lifted up mine eyes unto heaven mark that and mine eye and my understanding returned unto me and I blessed the most high and I praised the honor him that liveth forever whose dominion is an everlasting dominion and his kingdom is from generation to generation and all the inhabitants of the earth are as reputed as nothing and he doeth according to his will in the army of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth and none can stay his hand or say unto him what doest thou the same time my reason returned unto me and for the glory of my kingdom mine honor and brightness returned unto me my counsellors and my lord sought unto me and I was established in my kingdom an excellent majesty was added unto me now see this additional confession now

[45:03] I Nebuchadnezzar praise and extol the king of heaven you see he was in the same seat as the psalmist have you been in the same seat of these men brought upon by the spirit of God now I Nebuchadnezzar praise and extol and honor the king of heaven all whose works are truth and his way is judgment and those that walk in pride he is able to abase this God is our God God that is able to abase those that walk in pride and having abased them that walk in pride is able to bring them to extol and glorify and acknowledge the greatness of God in heaven as Nebuchadnezzar did how many that have a name to live and yet are dead don't know anything about these kind of things and in consequence they can't say with the same sureness and certainty this God is our

[46:22] God and what does that mean when we say that those that walk in pride is able to abase you know if ever you are to know this man that lived and died for you if ever you are to know anything about the experience of Paul in his epistle to the Galatians who loved me and gave himself for me you've got to know something about experience because the Lord Jesus was a humble person humble whilst you're walking in pride that word will never find an abiding place in your heart come unto me all ye that labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest but has it come into your heart and when has it come into your heart or when God has brought you down from your lofty pedestal you can't throw any stones at

[47:25] Nebuchadnezzar can you have you not gone out sometimes and said this great Babylon which I have built have you not sometimes said may we put it in respect to your business this great business which I have built up you're just in the same place as Nebuchadnezzar you know or if there is another fear in which you may have reason to throw your chest out in pride and say I've done this but the mercy of God the mercy of God that you've come to a person that is so exalted in pride and humble them in the dust and then bring them to a suffering Lord Jesus Christ and to see that this man is suffering the punishment due to your pride just think of it suffering the punishment but not only so his death blood shedding is able to take away all sin this God is our

[48:40] God who is able to take away all sin can you say it is this the God in whom your whole hope reposes that is able to take away sin the whole sin every little sin as well as every gross sin which you have committed by the precious blood of Jesus Christ this God is our God who loved me and gave himself me we must leave it for the moment let